MapsOfIndia.com/MyIndia.in Rating: 3/5
Director: Raaj Shaandilyaa
Plot
The story revolves around Karam (Ayushmann), a Mathura resident who falls in love with Pari (Ananya Panday). To marry her, Pari’s father wants Karam to improve his financial performance. Karan’s debt-ridden father Jagjit (Annu Kapoor) and friend Smiley (Manjot Singh) support him in becoming and doing tasks of ‘Pooja’ — first as a bar dancer, then as a psychiatrist to Shah Rukh (Abhishek Banerjee), who must be married before his sister Sakina with Smiley as per Abu Salim (Paresh Rawal).
In exchange for money and for Smiley’s sake, Pooja gets married to Shahrukh. Things turn messier when multiple people, like a bank official (Ranjan Ranjan Raj) to Sona Bhaiya (Vijay Raaz), wish to marry Pooja. The cast includes Asrani, Rajpal Yadav, Seema Pahwa, and others.
Performances
Ayushmann is outstanding, while Ananya looks beautiful but needs to share better chemistry with him as an average direction from Raaj makes it. Most of its actors are the same and fine in performing. Manjot manages to get the audience hooked with the delivery of dialogue.
Analysis
The trending ‘Ek Mod Aaya’ song excerpt in a scene makes it more lively but an effort not to include something original. The cinematography is up to the mark. There is a subtle attempt to support the LGBTQ community when Shah Rukh comes out as gay, and Karam later states, “Love is Love, man.” The grim side of the film has a dialogue: “Yeh ameer hai… tune kabhi kisi gareeb ko depression mein dekha hai’ referring to mental health is only rich people’s thing.
Verdict
Raaj brought the usual storyline with no freshness and just the required laughter. The end of the scene is similar to its first part, where cops arrive, and Karam reveals to those who fell in love with her that he is Pooja. It doesn’t add a new perspective and follows the path of a predictable plot.
The film seems fruitful for Ayushmann over the last three years, where it earned more on the first day of the release than his previous ones, whereas it will only affect Ananya’s career a little, considering the quirky nature of the film.
